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ELMO WEEKS: Admitting that the Masters should be on a pedestal

I was cocked and loaded to blaspheme.

I was fully prepared to question whether the Masters in all its green-jacketed exclusivity really is as important as it thinks it is. I had watched the Golf Channel’s 400-hour Masters preview and listened to golf commentators and former PGA Tour players reverently go on and on about the incomparable and sublime majesty of Augusta National.

As I heard more variations of “incomparable and sublime majesty,” the deluge of adulation started to gnaw on my nerves.

Then I tried to arrange an interview with a Savannah man who is a longtime volunteer at the Masters, but he told me Augusta National would prefer that he not discuss his experiences in the media. I greeted that news with a growl (via email), and the idea began to percolate that all of the secret codes surrounding the Masters are just bully tactics and the Masters should behave like other major sports events, because at the end of the day it’s just a golf tournament.

Then I spent some time with Tim Blackston, a lifelong friend who had just returned from his first trip to Augusta National. He set me straight.

Tim is from Savannah, graduated from Benedictine and played baseball at The Citadel. Always a good athlete and avid sports fan, he plays golf with his father, also named Tim, as often as work and life allow.

On a whim last year, Tim decided to enter the lottery for tickets to the Masters, a process that literally millions of people go through unsuccessfully every year. In fact, there are Masters devotees who have entered that lottery for 20 years and never been inside the gates of Augusta National.

Tim’s number wasn’t drawn last year, but he decided to make an annual effort and got four tickets to Tuesday’s practice round this year. And, yes, Tim is of Irish descent.

Tim traveled to Augusta with his mother, father and girlfriend. Everyone in the group was attending the tournament for the first time, and when he got back to Savannah, Tim poked my jaded perspective in the eye with a sharp tee.

“Personally, I would say if anything it’s underestimated,” Tim said. “It’s actually a much bigger stage than I thought it was.”

You probably wouldn’t call Tim the typical Masters patron. He’s 40 years old and quit playing golf for 15 years before exhuming his clubs last year. He wouldn’t have much use for an official handicap, and he’ll admit he’s not one to make gushing proclamations about golf or much else.

As Tim described his day on the grounds, it reminded me that the Masters really isn’t about the millionaires who are playing in the tournament or the billionaires who are members of Augusta National. It’s about the historic moments in golf that we all remember and the memories of the patrons who walk outside the ropes, whether they go every year or once in a lifetime.

“I grew up watching the Masters on TV, and I’m still in awe when I watch it on TV, but you truly can’t appreciate it unless you’ve been there,” Blackston said. “I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s breathtaking. You get in those gates and stand on top of that hill, and you have to take a second to really survey what you’re seeing.

“I’m not one to be blown away by nature, but it’s just so beautiful all at once.”

Tim resisted the urge to touch the grass until his father put some blades in his pocket to take home with him. A nearby veteran patron laughed and said he could have built a photo album with nothing but pictures of “first-timers” feeling the grass.

Regardless of when you go or how often you return, being at Augusta National is worthy of being on anyone’s bucket list because the course and the tournament are deserving of all of the hyperbole heaped upon them. Whatever your Masters tradition, there’s no wrong way to appreciate it and there’s no reason to think it’s anything less than the most unique event in sports.

McQuillan Memorial tournament set

The Jimmy McQuillan Memorial Golf Tournament benefiting the Savannah Junior Golf Association will take place on May 6 at the Savannah Golf Club.

Entry fee for the tournament is $500 for a four-person team or $600 hole sponsorship that includes a four-person team. Entry fee includes lunch and eligibility for prizes, including longest drive for men and women as well as closest-to-the-pin on all four par 3s.

The entry form is available at savannahjrgolf.org and entries must be received by May 3. Email john@savannahjrgolf.org for more information.

Coast Guard team wins scramble

The Coast Guard Tybee team of Sgt. Trent Malone, Sgt. Tyler White, Sgt. Chris Melone and Sgt. Aaron Burns won the Hunter Army Air Field Garrison Commander’s Scramble on Friday at Hunter Golf Club with a score of 11-under 61.

The next HAAF Garrison Commander’s Scramble is scheduled for May 10. Call 315-9115 for more information.

Elmo Weeks is a golf junkie and frequent contributor to the Savannah Morning News. Send your golf news, notes or anecdotes to him at elmoweeks@gmail.com or call him at 912-596-6016 to swap golf stories.